The present invention relates to a disk player capable or indicating a kind of a disk loaded in disk player or a signal recorded condition of the disk.
There has been proposed a new type of magneto-optical disk for recording and/or reproducing an audio signal or the like. Such a magneto-optical disk is generally classified into a recorded disk (unrecordable disk) on which a music source or the like is previously recorded, a recorded disk on which a user can record a desired source, and a partially recorded disk (partially recordable disk) having an unrecordable area and a recordable area.
These different kinds of disks are accommodated in respective cartridges having substantially the same external size, and data can be recorded to and/or reproduced from the disks by a common disk player.
Accordingly, before operating a playback button or a record button provided on the disk player, the user must recognize the kind of the disk to be loaded into the disk player.
However, since the three kinds of disks are accommodated in the respective cartridges having substantially the same external size as mentioned above, there is a possibility that the user will erroneously recognize the kind of the disk to be loaded into the disk player. For instance, if the user intends to record a music or the like into the disk player, he may notice the erroneous selection of the disk kind until the recording operation is not accepted by the disk player. In another case, if the user intends to reproduce a music or the like but erroneously loads the recordable disk having no record rather than the recorded disk or the partially recorded disk, he may not notice the erroneous selection of the disk until the reproducing operation of the disk player is started. Further, in the case where the disk is kept in a loaded condition in the disk player, the user cannot recognize the kind of the disk in the loaded condition until unloading the disk from the disk player.
Further, in the case of recording additional data to the recordable disk or the partially recorded disk, the user cannot recognize a recordable time remaining in the disk until once performing the reproducing operation and operating to indicate the remaining recordable time. Further, in the case of loading recordable disk having no previously recorded data into the disk player, the user cannot recognize whether or not the disk has any data recorded on it until once performing the reproducing operation.